A COMPUTER game billed as one of this year's biggest releases has put a small Guildford company firmly on the gaming map, after copies were recalled when the discovery of Koran verses in some of the background music led to fears it might offend Muslims.

Media Molecule was founded at the beginning of 2006, starting off with just two people who set to work on a game called LittleBigPlanet.

Two years later, and the Sony PlayStation 3 title is predicted to be one of the biggest sellers for any console in the run-up to Christmas.

But its release date - originally scheduled for Friday - has been put back after a track by Malian musician Toumani Diabate was found to contain two expressions used in the Koran.

Media Molecule said in a statement this week: "We have taken immediate action to rectify this and we sincerely apologise for any offence that this may have caused."

But the episode has not taken away from the pride of those at the company in the finished article, one game reviewer describing LittleBigPlanet as a “genre-defining must have”.

Technical director and co-founder David Smith said: “Most games fall into a few old categories like ‘racing game’ and ‘first-person shooter’. We wanted to defy this easy categorisation and explore a new niche in gaming.”

The Guildford area is now seen as a hotbed of computer games companies, with Media Molecule sitting alongside the likes of Lionhead, Codemasters, EA Bright Lights, Criterion and others.

Mr Smith said: “A number of us originally worked at Lionhead, which is just up the road.

"I don’t know whether anybody knows why there’s such a high density of game developers around Guildford," he added.

LittleBigPlanet - described as a "platform adventure with a huge social community enabling consumers to play, create and share their gaming" - is due out in the week beginning November 3, priced £44.99.